WeeChat reviews 1

2009-06-26

Software > IRC >
WeeChat >

(on Wikipedia)
https://weechat.org/

A console IRC client.

Table of Contents [hide]

Notes ∞

From 2015-03-26 or earlier.

  • Find old config? Isn’t all that handled by my wiki notes?
  • Autologin

  • I can’t use IRC until I can proxy and protect my IP.

2014-05-21 – 0.4.2 ∞

Seems to work very well.

I rather like WeeChat’s documentation, especially compared to SpaceFM‘s documentation, which I’ve been struggling with.

2010-09-26 – 0.2.6.2 ∞

Working just fine.

2010-09-04 – 0.3.3 ∞

Same shit, I’m not even bothering to look things up. For simplicity I’m going back to 0.2.6.2.

2010-04-19 – 0.3.1.1 ∞

I have no clue how to connect. The inline and online documentation don’t help. I went back to the 0.2.x series..

2010-01-06 – 0.3.0 ∞

wget weechat.org/files/src/weechat-0.3.0.tar.bz2
tar -xvvzf weechat-0.3.0.tar.bz2
cd weechat-0.3.0
su
smart install lib64aspell-devel lib64ncursesw-devel lib64gnutls-devel lib64lua-devel perl-devel ruby-devel lib64tcl-devel
./configure
make
make install

  • lib64python-devel doesn’t provide the python headers. I still get:

ImportError: No module named distutils.sysconfig

The key bindings for Home and End are not working, I had to update them to:

/key bind meta-OH /input move_beginning_of_line
/key bind meta-OF /input move_end_of_line

2010-01-02 – 0.3.0 ∞

See Compiling WeeChat 0.3.0 on Unity Linux 64bit beta1

Mentioned in 2010-01-02 random stuff.

I got WeeChat 0.3.0 running, and I can be found on IRC again. They made more drastic changes in this release than I thought they would, and I needed to rediscover the way to do all sorts of things. Once again, documentation could have been done better in this case, because it was non-obvious on how I would change hotkeys.

All the plugins have been outdated now that their internal engine has been changed, but there’s still a good list to go through. For unknown reasons I can’t get Python compiled in.. which is a complete pain since the good plugins will be in Python.

2010-01-01 – 0.3.0 ∞

wget weechat.org/files/src/weechat-0.3.0.tar.bz2
tar -xvvzf weechat-0.3.0.tar.bz2
cd weechat-0.3.0
su
smart install lib64aspell-devel lib64ncursesw-devel lib64lua-devel perl-devel ruby-devel lib64tcl-devel
./configure
make
make install
  • lib64gtk+-devel can be installed if you want something slightly more graphical. If so, run it with weechat-gtk.
  • I’m not installing asciidoc since I don’t have source-highlight
  • Not exploring jabber support

  • Not exploring direct connect

I have not been able to get python to work even though I installed lib64python-devel. Reinstalling Python and it has changed nothing. I’m not going to bother to troubleshoot right now, but I’ll have to if I want to get Python scripts running.

checking for python... /usr/bin/python
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named distutils.sysconfig
checking for Python header files... configure: WARNING:
*** Python header files couldn't be found on your system.
*** Try to install them with your software package manager.
*** WeeChat will be built without Python support.

Running weechat-curses works just fine. Basic usage:

/connect freenode
/nick <username>
/msg nickserv <yourpass>
/join #channelname
  • looks like everything’s been changed.. sigh
  • How do I add a server?
  • How do I do autoconnect?
  • How do I automatically message nickserv?

  • How do I change hotkeys? The documentation is inhuman, and the previous method doesn’t work even though the documentation hasn’t changed..

Key bindings
/key bind ctrl-C /input delete_line
# doesn't seem to really work:
/key bind ctrl-V /input clipboard_paste
# alt-left/right
/key bind meta2-1;3D /buffer -1
/key bind meta2-1;3C /buffer +1
# control-left/right
/key bind meta2-1;5D /input move_previous_word
/key bind meta2-1;5C /input move_next_word
# control-delete
/key bind meta2-3;5~ /input delete_next_word
# alt-backspace
/key bind meta-ctrl-? /input delete_previous_word
# control-backspace
/key bind ctrl-H /input delete_previous_word
# control-/
/key bind control-_ /input search_text
# control-pageup/pagedown, alt-pageup/pagedown
# note: use control-shift pageup/down if you want to scroll back in [[xterm]] to see the terminal history from before you launched weechat.
/key bind meta2-5;5~ /window page_up
/key bind meta2-6;5~ /window page_down
/key bind meta2-5;3~ /window page_up
/key bind meta2-6;3~ /window page_down
# home/end
/key bind meta2-H /input move_beginning_of_line
/key bind meta2-F /input move_end_of_line

notes:

Plugins tested

  • beep.pl Speaker beep on highlight/private msg.

Plugins lost

not updated yet..

  • ruby / forcenick.rb

2009-08-12 – 0.2.6.2 ∞

Works just fine from source.

  • can I load the past history for each channel? I want to get it back into my history list if I restart..

2009-07-16 – 0.2.6.2 ∞

I just unpacked it and did a 

./configure && make && make install

.. and it worked.

2009-04-30 – 0.2.7-devel 30/04/2009 06:43 ∞

not tested.

Installation

This time I decided to also include more dependencies so that I can get more plugins working.

apt-get install libaspell15-devel libjabberd0-devel perl-devel liblua-devel libtcl8.4-devel libgnutls-devel

I don’t know what these are: doc(pdf) doc(html)

No joy:

Spoiler 
*** libiksemel was not found. You may want to get it from https://github.com/meduketto/iksemel  <span class="footnote_referrer" ><a><sup id="footnote_plugin_tooltip_71453_1" class="footnote_plugin_tooltip_text" onclick="footnote_moveToAnchor_71453('footnote_plugin_reference_71453_1');" >[ 1 ]</sup ></a><span id="footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_71453_1" class="footnote_tooltip" > was [[archive:http://code.google.com/p/iksemel/|]] </span ></span><script type="text/javascript"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_71453_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_71453_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [1, 0], });</script>
*** WeeChat will be built without Jabber support.

*** Perl headers couldn't be found in your system.
*** Try to install it with your software package manager.
*** WeeChat will be built without Perl support.

*** Tcl headers couldn't be found in your system.
*** Try to install it with your software package manager.
*** WeeChat will be built without Tcl support.

*** Docbook XSL files not found
*** WeeChat will be built without documentation.
*** Try ./configure --with-doc-xsl-prefix=DIR if you have DIR/html/chunk.xsl file

Umm, libtcl8.4-devel and perl-devel didn’t install before? Odd.

apt-get install perl-devel libtcl8.4-devel docbook-utils

I don’t have libiksemel so I’ll ignore that one. Jabber support would be sweet though! Maybe later if there’s a reason I can get it from https://github.com/meduketto/iksemel [ 2 ] was http://code.google.com/p/iksemel/ 

*** Docbook XSL files not found
*** WeeChat will be built without documentation.
*** Try ./configure --with-doc-xsl-prefix=DIR if you have DIR/html/chunk.xsl file

docbook-style-xsl is installed, so I don’t know how to deal with this. Whatever.

  • notify.py (0.0.2.0, 2009-04-30)

    • Notification on screen for highlights and private messages.
    • How is this configured? How does it work? When I send myself a private message, it explodes. Presumably I’m missing some libraries or something?

  • beep.pl (0.3, 2009-04-30)

    • Speaker beep on highlight/private message.
    • It works, but because I don’t get any sound, it’s not so useful. See Enabling the Linux PC speaker beep. It beeps even when I’m looking at that buffer. Sigh.

review ∞

  • Does this have NickServ identification? I don’t see a plugin for that.

  • fifo seems to exist now

Seems sensible enough, but i’m going back to the release version now that I have the dependencies installed. I’d rather wait for the essential plugins to get updated before I use the other version. Well, I’d rather wait for a stable version..

2009-04-26+ – 0.2.6.2 ∞

  • Wow, it’s beautiful.

  • F10 scrolls the topic. But it wraps around when it gets to the end.

    • Just replace it with one command to view the whole topic.

  • I see no ~/.weechat/weechat_fifo_x file.

    • Aha, it needs to be enabled in the rc file.

  • Very very light on resources.

There is functionality to fix key bindings. Yay. Sensible defaults, but some don’t work for me. Some of it seems to be the fault of xterm, because LXTerminal works..

  • alt-k <key> will give you the keycode.

  • alt-F11 gives me 3~

    • it’s not a default key binding, the manual is wrong.

  • scroll wheel – won’t work!

    • /key meta2-Ameta2-Ameta2-A scroll_up
    • /key meta2-Bmeta2-Bmeta2-B scroll_down
  • I get no scan codes out of shift-pageup/shift-pagedown

  • control-home/control-end and alt-home/alt-end aren’t bindable. The control/alt are not noticed and just pageup/pagedown is seen.

setup ∞

See also WeeChat configuration

Put scripts in the appropriate autoload dir. If you’re expecting a scripting language directory and it’s not there, you probably don’t have support compiled in. At the WeeChat commandline, try stuff like /perl /python /ruby /lua and if you get an error with any of them you don’t have support.

Example directory:

~/.weechat/ruby/autoload
key bindings

  • alt-left/right – also binds mouse buttons 4/5 !

    • /key meta2-1;3D /buffer -1
    • /key meta2-1;3C /buffer +1

  • control-left/control-right

    • /key meta2-1;5D previous_word
    • /key meta2-1;5C next_word
    • /key ctrl-C delete_line

  • control-backspace

    • /key meta2-3;5~ delete_next_word

  • alt-backspace

    • /key meta-ctrl-? delete_previous_word

  • control-v

    • /key ctrl-v clipboard_paste

  • control-/

    • /key control-_ search_text

  • control-pageup/control-pagedown, alt-pageup/alt-pagedown

    • /key meta2-5;5~ page_up
    • /key meta2-6;5~ page_down
    • /key meta2-5;3~ page_up
    • /key meta2-6;3~ page_down

  • home/end

    • /key meta-OH home
    • /key meta-OF end

/key ctrl-C won’t clear the line in LXTerminal =/

key [key [function/command]] [unbind key] [functions] [call function ["args"]] [reset -yes]

bind/unbind keys

      key: display or bind this key to an internal function or a command (beginning by "/")
   unbind: unbind a key
functions: list internal functions for key bindings
     call: call a function by name (with optional arguments)
    reset: restore bindings to the default values and delete ALL personal bindings (use carefully!)
Automatic-connect and channel joining

a. at the commandline

weechat-curses irc://username@irc.freenode.net/#chan1,#chan2

b. always

edit ~/.weechat/weechat.rc and check for your server under [server]. Set this stuff:

server_autoconnect = on 
server_autojoin = "#chan1,#chan2"
server_password = "password"
server_nick1 = "nick"
server_nick2 = "nick2"
server_nick3 = "nick3"
NickServ identification

automatic commands after connecting (ghosting, nickserv identifying)

  • Forcenick (1.0, 2009-04-27)

    • Works with no configuration. Make sure ~/.weechat/weechat.rc has the correct nick and password information.
    • Ghosting hasn’t been tested. I can’t actually reproduce a ghost. :)
    • Does not work if the server goes down and I auto-reconnect.

  • NickServ identifer plugin (0.1, 2009-04-27)

    • Too universal and complicated.

  • Keepnick ()

usage ∞

  • alt-a to switch to the next unread buffer (channel).
  • /close to /part and close a window.
  • By default, any /key settings are saved automatically.
  • Press up to get to the previous commands. It remembers what you were typing.
  • You could type things, and press down to add it into your command history stack without sending it to the channel.

  • Your current-typing and history is saved individually for each channel you’re on.

todo ∞

Footnotes

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